The Hennessey Venom F5 is named after a tornado and sounds like thunder

The Fujita scale rates the intensity of tornadoes, and the highest rating for winds up to 318 miles an hour is F5. With that in mind, let me introduce the Hennessey venom F5. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Endowed with over 1800 brake horsepower, more than 1600 pounds for the top exhausts the concept of too much is anathema to this 2.1 million pound car. It promises to be the card that every child we want in their hand when playing the top trumps The next one, when it tests at the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, the expectation is that it won't be too far off that upper f5 rater with a target of over 500 kilometers an hour, or 311 miles an hour that Hennessey does want this to be more than just a straight line one trick pony So let's take a closer look. [MUSIC] Wow. [MUSIC] For a start at the front and car because a it seems logical and also because I just wanna talk about the badge here. It's rather be focused inlaid and then lacquered over the top of it but it's a new badge for Hennessy this H. And that's kind of important for this car because you might have heard of the Venom GT in the past which looked very much like a lotus zinc because that's what it was based on and technically, it was still a low 60s. The other part of the Hennessy business, Well, they call it making fast cars go faster. So everything from the velociraptor, the Ford truck, to Corvettes, anything really that they can make it go faster than they've done 12,000 of those over the year. They're going to do a thousand in 2021. Quite probably, but this is a sort of entirely separate on business. This is their first car ground up. It's entirely their own. It's not based on anything else. So it was deemed right to have its own branding. So that's when I just thought I'd mentioned that there we've got here, we've got carbon fiber body work. We've got adamantium sub frames around. The central monitor which we'll get to in a minute so got box action element at the front and civita space frame at the rear, three radiators here. So to hear for engine and then the intercooler and AC in the middle and it's extraordinary that huge person here actually can get bigger spaces so there will be a high downforce kit. Available for this. So biggest pressure under a wing at the back, but it's sort of extraordinary way because they've obviously come away from a car that was originally a lotus in their previous Venom GT as I mentioned before, and actually the look of it from here is quite, it's quite reminiscent initially of there's bits of laferrari in here but also the Avaya, The Lotus hypercar, which is coming out which is obviously all electric. And that's actually I say that as a compliment because I think the Avaya is one of the best looking cars I've seen in recent years. So as we move down the side here, Wheels forge wheels. So we've got 265 Cup2 tyres, front and 345 at the rear Brembo discs, and their AP racing brakes. Penske do the suspension there's we've got double wishbone all round, and it's fully adjustable suspension. You can also raise your right hand not in front, so as a nose lift, but also At the rear, I love the mills center caps for these wheels as well. It's in the air from those front radiators is all channeled in fact not to sort of come outside here and so therefore affect the heat for the tires but actually channel all the way down through to the back of the car for the diffuser. So actually keep the airflow down the side relatively clean by doing that and if you look underneath as well it is. Padded flat all the way to the back for that big rear diffuser. The thing down here, these are beautiful these wingers, and actually because obviously when you're doing 300 miles an hour potentially, they need to be really, really strong. So these are actually solid carbon fibre, which they then drill through to just get the. Electrics up to them, middle bit of the car, the central part of it, the heart of the chassis is carbon fiber Monica, which weighs just 86 kilos. And this car as much as it's sort of, yeah, it's the American dream. This car, it's actually quite a sort of global card way. I've just mentioned obviously. Rambo and AP this central monocultures all encompassing and this is not cosmetic here this is actually the monocoque that you can see in all these bits that go round here, back down here as well. It's made by a British company called KS, which I never heard of a in fact do all the carbon fiber on the body work and it is Absolutely beautiful stuff. So yes, it's,an American car. But they've they've pulled in partners from all over the world, which I like that, more of that and better actually, when we get to the engine in gearbox. One of the thing though, as much as I just said, it's a global car, of little things like this, you just see on the glass here. It's got Hennessy Got the Lone Star for Texas and then Kalin take it. That's central carbon tub, by the way has a torsional rigidity of 52,000 meters per degree. For context that is nearly twice that of an Aston Martin DBX, slightly above a Bugatti Chevron's 50,000 Newton meters per degree, and not too far behind Koenigsegg carbon chassis. Which is 65,000 Newton meters per degree is claimed to be the stiffest in the world. The overall weight of the car is a claim of 1360 kilos Chiron, which is important because it converts to just under 3000 pounds. Walking down the back of the car here, it's kind of it's, I think, a little simpler than the front maybe perhaps not quite as sculpted, as might like but it's the overall design they're trying to keep simple and some, I suppose fluid so that it will be a timeless design overall because they want this to stand the test of time given not producing many and also john Hennessy reference the McLaren f1 loves the way that has stood the test of time because it might not be the Most extravagant design but it still looks good all those years after it's first released and he wants the same for this down the back here. Well, the lights vent from in there. There's a bit of sort of, I'm seeing perhaps a little bit of McLaren gt but of the new Maserati mc 20 in this back here as well. This huge bumper down here, is all one massive piece of machined carbon fibre, possibly the biggest piece of machine carbon fibre on any car. The badge, 3D printed. 3D prints are actually in use an awful lot in the car and is a real boon. For low volume production cars, it's kind of slightly changed the game for people because you can you don't have to go to the great expensive city building something up and then going off and getting dozens made. It's really a great way of manufacturing pieces for these sorts of cars. It's a seven speed single clutch. So I'd be interested to see what the shift is like. Obviously it's having to deal with enormous forces. We'll come onto the engine in a bit. The [UNKNOWN] is by [UNKNOWN] as well. It's geared for 343 miles an hour. That's not saying it's gonna do that, but it's not gonna be gear limited. So there we are the arrow. The overall drag coefficient is naught point three, nine. There was a total similar actually based over at Silverstone. Rather back here. The main aerodynamic element is obviously this enormous rear diffuser down here. The idea. It's a. Basically you want a car that's just really well balanced when you're doing that sort of speed overall rear wing, there's no active arrow in the car. This railings really nicely integrated actually what the intakes there. And then it's the airs channels come through here and obviously trying to get all the heat out of the back of a car. As well, talking heat coming out of the back of the car, there is cerakote which is what they kind of use in gun barrels basically to stop them overheating. So all of the underside of here, and in fact was back on panel here and it's metal plate in here. So it's over all this to stop it getting too hot. Because well things might get a little hot. We'll talk more about that later perhaps. Now the engine actually for the engine. Let's take the cover off so we can see it. internals include titanium inlet valves, inconel exhaust valves and forged steel conrods and before you think that this must be an engine stretched to breaking points Just been tested over 2000 brake horsepower. Welcome to fury. This is why this is this is what it's all about. Really this is 6.6 liters of very American v eight. It's a cast iron block. Force dominium headers And well I'll give you those headline figures again as well. 1817 brake horsepower. So this is this is a pusher engine that raised 8200 RPM talk 1193 pounds foot of torque and there's over 1000 pounds of torque all the way from 2000 RPM. It is a beautiful thing to look at and say what I'm doing on here, the brace bars that go all the way down to the top of the suspension now just because I've seen all that talk, going through the rear wheel, so literally brace all the way up into the top of the monocoque up here. Is just as I absolutely have gotten machined from billet aluminum plant out here which is so, so beautiful then they've got the goes Platinum intercooler and then into the intake manifold down there. So that's all very neat in there. The size of the precision turbos. With titanium, 3D printing in that just enormous one. Look at the size of the waste gate coming straight off. The head of that is just as a massive blast. I will see each side as well. And then it comes straight back in. Here again. Everything is just Oversize a the fuel rails down here. It's described that the injection is being like a dissipative sprinkler system. Pumping fuel into them is, is quite extraordinary when you look at this engine and really quite a feat of Engineering and obviously the figures what this is all leading up to not just the top speed, the acceleration figures are just insane. naught to 100 kilometers an hour 2.6 seconds so not 62 miles an hour, anything that's kind of Tesla range. Okay, wait for it not to 200 kilometers an hour so 124 miles an hour 4.7 seconds, 4.7 seconds, not 300 kilometers an hour, 8.4 seconds. That's 186 miles an hour and 8.4 seconds. Not to 400 kilometers an hour, 15.5 seconds. That is just. Insane. Actually reckon you're probably not gonna be able to use full power until you're over 140 miles an hour. [LAUGH] Just the mind boggles, I cannot imagine what this is gonna feel like from the driver's seat. Okay, which people are gonna have a look at the driver's seat The first thing you notice when you get in here is what? It's the steering wheel. Which is fabulous. I love the look of it. There's clearly a lot of inspiration taken from Ford GT. So, certainly in these switches here, feel fantastic. And in fact, in the paddle as well. They're not as big as you get in the Ford GT but that sort of pierced look there. And listen to this. [SOUND] [SOUND] Proper sort of, they said they were going for like a rifle bolt action and it's just lovely really like that. It's a reminds me of so mixture of Ford GT and sort of Aston Martin Vulcan, I suppose and obviously also the yoke from an aeroplane and they said when they were developing this, that it was. When they sat in here and thought, right, what's it gonna be like doing 300 miles an hour potentially in this car, you're gonna be kind of almost as much as like a pilot or a driver. So that's why they took a lot of the sort of inspiration from that and obviously all the switches are up here for everything you pretty much need You've got the H rack down here which you can swipe across or up and down for that. I do like the the vents down here, which are stacked on top of each other. They look really cool and remind me of English Electric lightning, which was f6 not a five. Elsewhere the materials in here well, they say they've used leather. Were sort of use it sparingly I suppose. So use it at the touch points but nowhere else. It comes from a particularly old in fact the oldest tannery, which is in Scotland. other details the materials in terms of carbon fiber, lots of exposed carbon fiber in here. It's a mixture of gloss and matte. And suddenly down here we've got some carpet. And it's actually it's not sitting on top of the carbon fiber. They've actually sort of almost inlaid it here into their big pedals as well. Numerous pedals probably the largest pedals I think I've ever seen in a car of this type storage. You might be wondering because obviously when you when you buy one you can think on some storage, but a little cubby hole down here. He also got a little sit down here for your phone. And, in fact, the glove box, the sort of where the passenger will put their feet down there, you've got Venom F5 down there as well. A little bit of aluminio here which is a nice detail and there are lots of really really nice details in this car for. Given this is their first ground up car. They've really paid attention to stuff. There's obviously the badges here for the American flag here and then the Texas Lone Star fly then you got little ones here on the seats as well. And then you look in here and the f5 on the hinges in there. It's It's a cool place to be. It actually feels quite spacious in terms of, it's not again, to keep walking back to Ford GT, I think because you've seen, you sit really inboard from the outside of the car, there's this sense of sort of being right. Sort of towards the center of the car, but there's no much more width between you under a passenger over here. Hadrons actually not battler does see comes down either side, and apparently kantara in the roof, no rearview mirror at the moment because all you'd see is the engine rocking away behind you. Now, if you get one of these cars is obviously a lot of testing to go through first and verify what numbers This may or may not do, and it will do what it does. They're not gonna say that it will definitely break the 500 kilometer an hour barrier or anything like that. The tires they've done all the calculations load ratings. I think it'll take it, but they work with Michelin and there's a lot of testing to go through first and not just in a straight line either. They want this car to be. Something that will work on a British beard and it will be obviously lots of different modes all the way up to f5 mode which isn't certainly what isn't in the screen here which is pretty cool. I'm not quite sure about that screen it feels like that. Perhaps needs to be slightly more delicate like this screen in the middle which has got me Apple CarPlay connects to your phone. But if you buy one of these cars then you need to go through a day's testing to be allowed to actually access the f5 mode in total. They said they will go to second Americas or someone goes to Nurburgring as well. Not necessarily setting out right lap time but to check that it will go under seven minutes there and, yeah The only thing left, really, is to wonder what happens when you press the ignition button just there. And I have [INAUDIBLE] they will start up the engine for me. So without further ado, let's hear that 6.6-liter turbocharged V8 start up. Right, I genuinely haven't heard this yet, so For the whole. [SOUND] Wow, [UNKNOWN]. [BLANK_AUDIO] [SOUND] [SOUND]